Real Wedding: Alex & Mike

Today I get to share Ed Peers‘s work with you for the second time, and I’m just as excited about it as I was the first time around! Not only are his photos some of the loveliest I’ve seen, but his clients are so thoughtful in the way they approach their weddings. Perfect inspiration for those in the midst of planning…

Alex wore a custom gown (in silver satin!), made by a friend from the theater, costume designer Lynn Hamilton. The bride tells us it was “based on combination of my grandmother’s dress, some dresses I tried on, some seen on blogs, and some vintage patterns Lynn had access to. The monogrammed ‘W’ back buckle was a bargain find on eBay.”

Though the wedding wasn’t especially traditional, there were a few wedding customs followed. Say Mike and Alex: “We threw confetti after the ceremony, and we accidentally found ourselves in a receiving line (a good idea in the end)!”

Guests played card games and got silly with a limbo pole, including the best man who demonstrated his gymnastic skills by somersaulting over the it.

A friend designed the Deco-inspired signage, and Alex silk screened 100 tea towels with a hilarious quote from The Princess Bride…

Instead of a formal wedding cake, the couple asked their guests to bake treats. Says Alex, “One of our favorite moments was when we sneaked off into the great hall before the guests, and the cake table – beautifully lit, covered in a spectacular display of our guests’ cakes – just took our breath away. The cake table looked STUNNING, and it was such a wonderful reminder of how much our friends cared.” Instead of a cake cutting, the couple had a ribbon cutting to kick off the dessert course!

Alex and Mike kindly took the time to share some details about the day!

Why did you choose this location for your wedding? When we first discussed our wedding, we agreed only two material things mattered – the venue and the food. We stumbled across Eltham Palace and fell in love with it. Discovering that our favorite Sunday brunch place was an approved caterer was pure kismet, and the look and feel of the day just followed – vintage (with nods to Art Deco), a bit rustic, but not overly-fussy or feminine. We’re a very relaxed and informal couple, so we wanted our guests to feel the same way.

What inspired you when you were planning your wedding? We have a house filled with items that are antique, vintage, retro and modern, and love the informal feel it creates. Alex spent an afternoon creating a mood-room: a display of all the objects around the house that spoke about the look we were going for. We were in full agreement, and sent photos of that display to our vendors so they could see what we were aiming for. Also, as we met working in theater, we wanted a few subtle nods to that, and wanted the tone to be slightly bawdy and not too serious at all – see our cocktail names for a taste of that!

Do you have any DIY tips for other brides? For DIY projects, make a list well before, budget this up, analyze what you can do yourself and what can be farmed out to helpful mates in the months and weeks leading up to the day. Cross off anything that isn’t something within your comfort zone (I wish I’d done more screenprinting at college – it was crazy getting 100 of those tea towels done!), but enlist friends wherever possible. As we saw it, they’re the ones who’ll shape your memories of the day, so having them involved throughout makes it all so much more special.

What advice do you have for other brides? Don’t panic when seemingly-important things go wrong – Alex’s bespoke wedding ring, picked up the day before the wedding after a second attempt, was a disaster, and the maid of honor had to talk Alex down from floods of tears! Alex rang her mother and discovered that, when she married Alex’s father, her wedding ring wasn’t finished yet. Her mum ended up getting married with her engagement ring – so Alex did the same.

Really love the tribue to The Princess Bride in their wedding. I really hope that was their favor to their guests. That would be super cute framed with guests own wedding photos. And that dress? Super stunning. I think silver is a classy alternative to white.

I was so SUPER EXCITED to hear from Ed Peers that Snippet & Ink wanted to cover our wedding – this site was such an inspiration through the whole process, we could not have tied our own ideas together without the ideas and expertise this place provides. THANK YOU!

In repines to all the above, thank you all so much for your kind comments and compliments! It was a fabulous day, and Ed’s photos did every minute justice.

To answer your questions – I designed the tea towel with our favourite quote (I trained as a graphic designer), but our friend Tony did all the frame signs (he does theatre posters as a sideline!). The tea towels were indeed favours.

I just want to give a little big-up to Vintage Style Hire, who provided many vital props to our day, as I think I forgot to mention them!

If you’re preparing for your big day, good luck and enjoy! And remember to look to Snippet & Ink for inspiration!

What a beautiful wedding! I was so excited to see this as I’m also getting married at Eltham Palace next year… I’m going down a similar route with a nod to art deco and I have been searching for ages for the perfect photo frames and you have them at your wedding! I wondered if you could let me know either where you got them from or if you’d sell them to me!? Many Thanks!!